The Trials of Buffy's faith
by flileytothemoon
Summary: The M is because of quite a bit of swearing, but nothing you likely would not hear on the show, maybe more of it, but nothing worse per se. Starts Mid-S3, Kinda AUs from there. Most major events will still happen, but how they are handled might differ.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea for the story. No profit made. All characters are owned by their owners, not me.

Author: Me, pen-name: flileytothemoon

Feedback: please! With a side order of yes please!

Season: 3

Spoilers: Up to Consequences (S3, ep15)

Pairing(s): Buffy/Faith & allusions to Faith/Xander and Buffy/Angel

Content codes: FF, rom, angst,

Chapter 1: Consequences and Confrontations

"Faith, we need to deal! You killed a man! Not a vamp, a man!"

"Chill, B! I am dealing! We were sent to investigate what "caused" his death, I just wanna make sure I can prove what "really" caused his death."

"What? You caused his death! As a slayer, you do not have the power of life and death. We kill forces of darkness, we are supposed to be warriors of the light, not vigilantes or murderers or judges or—"

"B! breathe! You're pitching a fit for nothing! No one will ever know!"

"You will! I will!"

"And? Are ya gonna turn me in, B? We've already danced to this tune, B. We've had this chat. You ain't got the stones."

"So, now you're James Bond? You have a license to kill?"

"You have been spending waaaay too much time with Xand, B. Or maybe it's the 2 Brit watchers? "

"Is this really all a joke to you, Faith? Murder is a joke? What happened in your life that you became like this? You are a slayer for crying out loud, doesn't that mean anything to you? Don't I? Aren't we friends? I thought we were gonna fight together. Watch out for each other. I'd have your back You'd have mine. What happened to that?"

"First, the only joke is you B, you are wound way too tight, you really need to get laid, or something. As for MY life…don't go there, just…no. For the rest: Yeah, I am a slayer, someone got in the middle and got hurt. Stuff happens, we are in a dangerous line of work, slayer reflexes are superhuman, but not perfect, did I wanna kill him? No, but nothing will bring him back, and me going to jail sure as shit won't. So, actually, I DO still have your back; question is: do YOU still have MINE?"

Buffy looked around, she thought to herself, trying to stall and decide what to do, while not taking too long and getting them both caught with Finch's body. After what seemed like an eternity, but was only maybe 15-20 seconds, she finally made up her mind.

"Fine, I can't believe I am doing this but, it's true, nothing we do will bring him back so, now what?"

"C'mon, I'll show you. You've never really killed anyone? Or covered up a crime? B, you have lived some kinda sheltered life." Faith says, smirking, lighting up a cigarette and walking off. Getting over the shock of being insulted by Faith, again, Buffy shakes herself and starts to get in gear and catch up to her sister slayer, trying to imagine, but not really wanting to, just want kind of life the Bostonian slayer must have had to make her so jaded about something as serious as murder. From what Faith had said, this mustn't have been her first. And covering it up as well? Buffy didn't even want to know whether or not she would be able to pull something like this off on her own. She even had her doubts about how she would handle this. She had always had a very clear sense of right and wrong.

"You don't seriously expect this to work do you?" Buffy asked Faith for what must have been the 10th time. And again, with the patience one normally reserves for small children with profound developmental delays, Faith attempted to reassure Buffy that, in fact, this WOULD work, all the while resisting the urge to roll her eyes in frustration at how hopelessly sheltered this girl was.

"How can someone like this fight demons and vamps? And not get lunched? She's good and all but… she's not… I dunno…all there upstairs." Faith said to herself again. Also for what must have been the 10th time.

Much to Buffy's surprise, and consternation however, it had all gone exactly as Faith had predicted. It seems Faith, despite avoiding the 2 watchers like the plague, somehow either knew them better than Buffy did or just played them like a pair of violins in the hands of a pair of virtuosos. All she had to do really, was agree here and there when she was asked to confirm some of the details of Faith's story. And then keep her mouth shut for the rest of her life, or at least till this all blew over.

2 nights later, they were patrolling when Faith had finally had enough of Buffy's silent fuming. And after they had dispatched the last of their foes, she grabbed Buff and threw her none-too-gently against a tree, and pinned her there, one arm either side of her head.

"What's gotcha so worked up, B? Still not getting' any from The Broody One? What's got your panties in a bunch now?"

"You, Faith."

"Me? I'm flattered, B, didn't think our relationship would progress this quickly though, never had you pegged as playing for THAT team."

"What? Oh, OH. No, a world of no. What I meant was, I am just not getting how you can have killed a man, and not seem to care. Me, I didn't do anything except LIE and I am a nervous wreck."

"First, you threw him to me, you thought he was a demon, same as I did. Second, methinks thou dost protest too much. And finally for what I hope will be the final time I must address this issue. B. Buffy. Listen to the words coming out of my mouth. I don't care. I don't. But…so? You care. Will caring bring him back? Or anyone else who dies? Fact is, If not for us, Everyone in this sleepy lil burg would be dead or a vamp, and what do we get for extending THEIR lifespans other than an early grave? Do we get thanked, like cops do, or firefighters, or EMTs? No, we aren't even acknowledged. People largely deny that what we save them from, at the nightly risk of OUR lives, even exists outside of horror novels and slasher films. Most people, when you talk to them about vamps, think of goths, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise."

"Is that why you do this? To be famous? For praise? I do it because, if I don't no one will. Like you said, most deny these things are real. They used to say the same about micro-organisms, couldn't see them so couldn't be real. Now we know better. Until the rest of the world wakes up, it will up to the slayer, or slayers to fight that fight for everyone else."

"Well then, you go be noble B, fact is, reasons and approaches differ, end result is the same: we live or we die. Better odds if we're together you said before, right? Well I am in, but this noble shepherd protecting the dumb herd act? Nah, I am doing this cause I gotta, and cause I'm good at it. If there's collateral damage, it's their fault for getting mixed up in a fight they had no business getting mixed up in. You don't bring a knife to a gunfight or meat to a fight with a vamp."

"Huh?"

"Meat? Steak?"

"Oh, you and your jokes, and you say I spend too much time with Xander…"

"You do, B."

"Then who should I spend my time with, F?"

"Me."

"Oh, and why is that, besides patrolling?"

"Better jokes, better looking, better fighter, better in the sack…"

"WHAT?"

"He and Will never told ya? Yep, I popped his cherry. Then promptly threw him out on his ass. I mean he's okay and well-hung, no I mean, like seriously, like he's…" but just as Faith was about to finish her thought by demonstrating the size of Xander's package, Buffy cut her off,

"I DO NOT wanna know."

"B, it was impressive, even for me…"

"Still don't wanna know, and never will wanna know."

"Why? Pissed that you missed out? That you chose Fangboy for your first when the elephant-dicked man was so close by?"

"Enough, Faith. Enough."

"What's really bothering you, B?"

"Like I said, you, Faith, you." This last response was muttered by a crying Buffy as she took off on a dead run from Faith, she didn't want to hear any more, she didn't know quite why, but not just for the reasons she was telling Faith, somehow Faith seemed able to read her too, and could tell she was holding something back, she didn't know if Faith knew what that something was, but didn't think so as even she wasn't 100% sure what was bothering her so much about this whole scenario.

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea for the story. No profit made. All characters are owned by their owners, not me.

Author: Me, pen-name: flileytothemoon

Feedback: please! With a side order of yes please!

Season: 3

Spoilers: Up to Consequences (S3, ep15), AUs from there.

Pairing(s): Buffy/Faith & allusions to Faith/Xander and Buffy/Angel

Content codes: FF, rom, angst,

Chapter 2: Doppel, Doppel, toil and trouble…

"Ms. Summers! I will not put up with this sort of passive resistance-style sedition in my school! I knew you were a trouble-maker, your file screams it to me, and it would do the same for Helen Keller I suppose, do you even know who she is, Ms. Summers, do you ever pay any attention to any of your classes, or do you just rely on soft-hearted simpletons like my predecessor to pass you year after year, to get rid of you or just because they couldn't bear to hurt your precious feelings? That is not why I got into education, Ms. Summers, I am here because I care, in the truest sense, about those in my charge, I am here to prepare them for the realities of adult life. And those realities are harsh, Ms. Summers."

"We done here, Mr. Snyder? And yes, I am aware of the film The Miracle Worker and what a remarkable woman Ms. Keller was. As far as the rest…while I have no doubt of your belief that you care, I do just fine in my classes…"

"Thanks to Ms. Rosenberg doing all your homework, taking all the notes, copying them for you, and preparing you for every test, it's remarkable her marks don't suffer, she is attending school for two, when you're the one more likely to end up an unwed teen mother, maybe we should just let you drop out so you can begin with your calling, cut back Ms. Rosenberg's workload a bit, and then we can all get on with our lives. Would you like that?"

Buffy bit back on the desire to 1)beat her Principal into a coma, 2)make a comment about her True Calling, 3) rise to the bait about dropping out because that didn't actually sound that bad. Instead, she simply said,

"But Principal Snyder, I would not want to be unprepared for what you so sagely pointed out: the harsh realities of the adult world, I NEED to stay in school. As for my friends, well, one is visiting right now, and well..let's just say that although she and I go way back, I am always stressed when she comes for her…once-monthly visit." She concluded with a knowing nod to the principal who visibly gulped and stepped back at this, as though Buffy had just announced that she had TB.

"Well then…um…uhhh… please go see the nurse Ms. Summers, maybe she could um…help you if you are stressed or perhaps a guidance counselor, as stress management is outside my area of specialty, I am an administrator, caring for such things it is best delegated to a more experienced, specialized person than I."

Chuckling to herself, she quickly thanked the Principal and headed out of his office to "see" the nurse. Although instead, she went to the library, to see her Watcher and the Scoobs.

"Buffy! We heard you'd been sent to Snyder's office, what happened?"

"Same as always Xander, not paying attention in class, I think he's been reading Macchiato or something, he called it passive-resistance style sedition."

"You mean Macchiavelli, first off Buff, secondly, passive resistance was more Gandhi, or Martin Luther King jr. or…"

"Thank God for you Will, always there, Old Reliable, spouting facts the rest of us half-remember at best right when we need them. Like clockwork." Buffy said, wrapping an arm around her babbling best friend, trying to cut off the babble early for once, and hugging her close.

Willow didn't say anything but something had clearly snapped inside her as at that comment she shrugged off Buffy's arm and took off crying.

"What'd I do? What happened?" She checked her armpits. "Do I stink? What's going on? She was here with the 4 of you (indicating Xander, Oz, Cordy and Giles) what happened to my best friend? Who is in for a beating?"

"If you're looking for who to hit, get a mirror, Buffy. Will and I aren't friends, never have been, never will, (Cordy paused a moment to chuckle at her wit. No one else even noticed what she was laughing at.) but for her best friend, you've been awfully cozy with someone else a lot as of late, neglecting Willow in the process…"

"Angel? I have barely spent any time with him the past 2 months. Besides why would that bother Will now? Otherwise, I'm here in school with her a lot, or at home where we hang and work on homework and stuff or I go on patrol with Faith. What? does Will want to come patrolling with me and Faith? We have had this chat, it's too dangerous for you all to patrol with us. We are the ones with the superpowers. Not you; you are the friends, sidekicks, whatever. I am gonna find Will, get this straightened out."

And off Buffy went, followed a moment later by Oz.

"Where's he going now?" Cordy whined to the room at large as 3 people she didn't really care about had all just left her presence, why would anyone want to do that? Where could possibly be better to be than near Her, Queen C?

Xander, knowing his girlfriend's selfish preoccupations, invited her to go to a movie with him, that they could go to any movie she wanted (of course) and they would (of course) trash the actors (who couldn't hold a candle to her) and then they'd have a lovely dinner and well, they'd do what teenaged couples in the Western world did after this formulaic a date. Namely, each other.

Giles, meanwhile, now left to his own devices, simply looked around, contemplated thanking Chaos, and instead simply thanked his cup of Bovril that he was now free of them all although, he marveled at the deceptive depth to young Mr. Harris, that he would put up with this…bizarre young woman, while he understood why, her charms were…obvious, her deficiencies were no less so. But that he handled the combination so deftly nonetheless spoke to qualities that clearly did come from his home life and upbringing. How could such defective parents produce 3 such remarkable young people then Ms. Chase have both her parents and be such as she was? As for the lycanthropic Oz, his past seemed largely a mystery as he was as verbose as Giles' Bovril.

Rupert's meditations were interrupted by Wesley Wyndham-Price.

He was out of breath, and quite flushed, a normal person in this state likely would have run up 3-4 flights of stairs and down a reasonable-length corridor, in Wesley's case, most likely he had tripped over his tongue passing Ms. Chase in the corridor. How this nimrod could possibly have passed muster with the Council was beyond Giles.

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea for the story. No profit made. All characters are owned by their owners, not me.

Author: Me, pen-name: flileytothemoon

Feedback: please! With a side order of yes please!

Season: 3

Spoilers: Up to Consequences (S3, ep15), AUs from there.

Pairing(s): Buffy/Faith & allusions to Faith/Xander and Buffy/Angel

Content codes: FF, rom, angst,

Chapter 3: Doppel, Doppel, toil and trouble… (part II)

"So good to see the fitness standards for the Watchers have not been allowed to slip since I was your age…" Giles drawled, to the extent a British accent can drawl.

"Very, funny, but…have vital…information…hence my desire to relay it with haste that we may act upon it." Wesley finished, having regained his breath.

"This would be?"

"Faith may not have been entirely forthright in her account of the events surrounding the deputy Mayor's death."

"Meaning?" Giles queried, his curiosity piqued, gesturing for the insipid junior watcher to continue.

"Meaning, that we may have been lied to by our charges!"

"That I figured out by your preceding statement, you nitwit. What new information do you have that led you to this conclusion and how reliable is your source?"

"I have a source in the Mayor's office, who was able to relay to me, at great personal risk, that the Mayor suspects Faith and Buffy are involved in his murder. That the Mayor further suspects his deputy of intending to betray him to us, and that the 2 slayers may have prevented this, for reasons he, I mean my source, does not know."

"Why would Buffy and Faith want to murder the Deputy Mayor if he was going to switch sides?"

"Maybe Buffy and Faith are in league with the Mayor? Perhaps, the fatigue of nightly patrols and the prospect of nothing more than an early grave in their future has driven them to the brink of madness where this might seem preferable? Maybe this was a test of their loyalty to the Mayor?"

"Are you mad? I may not know Faith that well but I have known Buffy for almost 3 years, and I will not believe that she would suddenly turn her back on this calling. She has had every opportunity in the past and has never shirked. Her first love tried ending the world. Her mom threw her out. And later tried burning her and her best friend at the stake. I have drugged her for the Cruciamentum. Which is part of why you are now here. And yet she never shirked her duty. And Faith's approach may differ markedly, but there is no denying her enthusiasm for her calling."

"Yes, your parental care for your charge, well, as I am unencumberered by such unhealthy attachments, and am the official Watcher in charge of both slayers, it is my decision that is the one that ultimately matters, I was simply counselling with you as you have more experience in the field, though I am not without experience," at this, Giles snorted derisively "yes well, regardless of what you think of me, what you think is ultimately of little import, as I said, I am the Watcher of record, and was simply here to inform you that the Council has dispatched a team of agents to study the Slayers and make recommendations, should you attempt to interfere in any way or warn the Slayers, this time, having already been sacked, you will be dealt with differently, namely as an enemy. This was your one and only warning. DO NOT interfere with official Council business, it is no longer your concern, you are now simply a librarian, do that, do it well, do it poorly, I care not, I am here to represent the interests of the Watcher's Council." With that Wesley walked out.

Giles was gobsmacked. What had happened to these people he had sworn oath to and with?

Later that night and unaware of what had happened between the 2 watchers, Buffy was still looking for Willow when finally she had found her, from descriptions from people, and from a couple of demons she'd beaten information out of. Strange though, apparently she was at the Bronze, but not being Willow, being, well, still Willow, but a VERY different Willow. She finally got a call from Oz, who she'd had an actual conversation with earlier in the day, after leaving the library. He had pointed out that Buffy had been spending a lot of time with Faith and that Will was concerned that Faith was taking over as Buffy's best friend. Of course, Oz being Oz, it was much more concise, and the silences between what he said somehow said more than what he said did. The only other person she knew who could do that was Angel, but Oz was, what 20? Maybe 21? No way he should be that good at that for another 200 years or so like Angel, right? Or maybe Angel had been like Oz as a human? That would have to wait as she was now outside the Bronze, but something was off, well several were in fact, starting with 1) no line-up outside, and 2) the regular doorman wasn't there. In fact it wasn't even a doorman, but rather a vampire, kinda nervous-looking vamp to be exact. And that hushed, hurried call had brought her here. "Willow's at the Bronze, get here. NOW." The urgent tone of the last word and the call as a whole, almost a week's quota of words from Oz in one call, A month's worth, counting the chat earlier. Now she was trying to figure out what to do. And where was Faith? She'd called her fellow slayer, but Faith was oddly non-committal about coming to help.


End file.
